Cal lay flat on his back on the bed, half-awake, staring up at the ceiling.

As ceilings went, it was only moderately interesting. It was more interesting than simple plaster, being as it was covered entirely with a dozen broad recessed wooden panels--even though most of them were just plain, dark wood. The single exception was a large circular section over the bed, carved with a crazily complex knotwork design that looped back on itself over and again in ways nearly impossible to follow.

From somewhere outside came a rippling orange-yellow light; it washed over the carving in waves, making the lines seem to twist through each other like colors in a kaleidoscope. It was just a streetlamp reflecting off a puddle somewhere, but still a mesmerizing effect.

Beyond the windows the winter rain drizzled down steadily, its chill droning a backdrop for the sounds of deep, warm breathing coming from a little to Cal's left.

Cal sighed and squirmed a bit more, but the thick-furred arm lying across his stomach was surprisingly heavy and it didn't seem like it'd let him push it any further. He'd run out of space to move himself too: already his head was bumping against the headboard and he was nearly falling off the edge, even despite how wide the bed was. Though he did suppose that where the offending arm was now was a major improvement over where it'd been when he'd woken up, gasping and spitting fur, to find its owner exhibiting simultaneously the feline talents of taking up an entire bed and of sleeping atop one's face.

A muffled snort drew his attention to that feline, currently lying face-down just to Cal's side. The dim and wavering light rendered him into a fuzzy collection of shadows, only sketching out the shape of the tiger-guy whose appearance had turned Cal's night from tedious to surreal. The tiger snorted again, twitching an ear and rubbing his face into the pillow; even through blanket and fur Cal felt the tensing of his arm muscles as claws pricked at the bedclothes. The tiger shifted a fraction of an inch closer.

Face flushed for reasons he was trying not to think about, Cal considered just waking him up and asking him to move over--but this entire situation was already bad enough and he didn't want another round of weird angry conversation to make it even worse. Nor any more tricks the tiger might have up his sleeve...

"'Rocky?' Like the squirrel? Or the boxer?"

Tiger Guy nodded. He was still sitting on the bed where Khola had left him, still staring at the floor. His ankles crossed and uncrossed restlessly as he fidgeted with his tail tip.

From his perch on the cushions of the window seat, Cal looked him over warily. Tiger Guy... well, "Rocky," had seemed surprised when Cal asked him his name and taken several moments before he'd blurted it out. At least he seemed to speak English, though Cal had been surprised when his voice turned out to be a light baritone rather than the growling bass you might expect from his appearance.

Given this guy's size, it's probably the boxer he's named for, Cal thought. He could certainly beat me up, anyway. ...Not that that's really saying much, I suppose.

A few minutes of observing Rocky--from a safe distance--had let Cal rule out the possibility of a costume. If there were a human in there, then it was the best fursuit anyone had ever made ever. Holograms, aliens, and alcohol-induced hallucinations were still definite possibilities though.

He considered just asking the guy what he was, but with all the questions screaming around the back of his mind (like "Why are you in my room?" and "Why haven't I seen anything like you before?" and "Can you really lick your own butt?"),it was hard to decide what to ask first.

Cal cleared his throat nervously. "So, uh, aunt Khola said something about--"

"It's the fur, isn't it."

Cal started as the tiger-guy suddenly stopped fidgeting and fixed him with a vaguely disappointed stare.

"I get it fluffy enough, did I." he said. "Or maybe it's the teeth? Too shiny, too dull, too sharp? Or was I showing too much claw? Too little? Too many ear notches?" He frowned, eyes narrowing and voice turning bitter. "Maybe I should have rolled over and played kitten? Gotten a ball of yarn or something? Would that have been better?"

He paused, and Cal seized the chance to eloquently express his confusion.

"I... huh?"

Rocky ignored him.

"So--I actually was thinking about doing the kitten thing for you," he continued with a frustrated sigh. "But it's seriously embarrassing. And anyway, I know you prefer your guys macho, rather than doing that cutesy stuff. So I thought I'd just stretch out a bit, maybe show off how great my-- Oh. Oh wait, it's not that, is it?" Rocky stared down at his lap for a beat, frown deepening. When he looked up at Cal again, his stare had turned outright accusing. "So, you do know that nobody in real life actually fills their shorts like those drawings on gofurriffic, right?" he said.

Cal felt a trickle of ice run down his spine, as his growing anxiety about being shut in a room with an annoyed predator suddenly compounded itself into anxiety of being shut in a room with an annoyed predator who knew his internet browsing history.

Or maybe it was just the beginnings of deja vu.

"Uh, drawings where?" he stuttered. "I, uh, have no idea what you're--"

"Don't play dumb, Carmine."

Cal froze.

"Carminefox8. Do you even know who I am?" Rocky chuckled darkly, his face twisting into a bitter expression. "I'd really hoped you'd remember. But no, I guess I was only ever just 'convenient' to you. After all, it's easy to see what your real preferences are just by looking through your favorites collection. And I can hardly believe what you're into." He tched. "I'd really hoped you were better than that."

Cal just sat gaping, stomach turning over and his fear churned itself into something darker. Despite coming from a very different source, the words echoed those of his last boyfriend almost verbatim--on the day he'd told Cal he was dumping him. Out of the blue, after seven otherwise euphoric weeks. Hearing the words again was a wash of remembered pain.

Of course, Jason had also been a handsome silver-tongued bastard who'd "borrowed" a laptop, most of Cal's game consoles, and a pretty nice coffee maker--then threatened to send certain sexually explicit screenshots and chatlogs to Cal's clients if he complained about it. Not from the chats with him, of course--that'd be mortally embarrassing, but nowadays a Santa Dolora company couldn't afford to care about just "gay." Some of them would care rather a lot about "with animals" though, and while Jason had been spending what must have been hours digging through Cal's computer and browser history, he'd also swiped the logs from Cal's handful of gofurrific RP attempts. Including the one that'd gone pretty pornographic.

Cal knew he was a total pushover. But even so there was no way in hell he was going to go through an experience like that again--and especially not twice in three months. Even just thinking about it made the bile well up in his chest, half-buried rage stirring and looking for a target. Not that it was really hard to find one.

Cal stared at the tiger on the bed. How had this guy even found his account? Or known that it was his? And how the hell did an anthropomorphic tiger have any business getting huffy over it in the first place?

Cal's felt his jaw tense up. His eyes narrowed down into a fiery glare, as his world narrowed down to just Rocky's face and its ridiculous, infuriating sneer.

"What the hell is your problem?" he spat out. "And what the hell business is it of yours what I like? I've never seen you before in my life! You're just some jackass stalker who gets off on breaking into people's rooms and scaring them half to death!"

Rocky let out a rumbling growl and laid his ears back.

"You're not supposed to be scared!" he snarled menacingly. "Why the hell were you scared? This room is so canted you should just go along with anything! You shouldn't be scared, and you definitely shouldn't be yelling and running for help thirty seconds after seeing me!"

" What? " Cal stared at him, jaw hanging. "What the hell does that mean? And what the hell else do you expect me to do?" He jumped down from the window seat and stalked across to the tiger on the bed, any lingering fear blotted out by a cloud of red.

"You see this?" he demanded, grabbing at Rocky's tail and dragging it upward a foot before it was whipped out of his grasp. "Tail!" He jabbed his finger at an arm. "Stripes!" He jabbed at a paw. "Claws!" He jabbed at a muzzle--or tried to, but Rocky knocked his hand away. "Whiskers! Fangs! Now, you may not have been aware of this, but you're a goddamn tiger! And I'm not in the circus! Normal people don't really like hanging around with large things that might bite their arm off!"

"Like I'd do that!" Rocky growled, baring his fangs like he was going to bite Cal's arm off. "Do you have any idea what I risked just by showing up here like this? A fucking lot! But it would all be fine, it was all going to work out, because I knew you'd be attracted to me! Even if it turned out to be just a little, that's all I needed!" He tilted his head back to gaze upward theatrically, waving a paw toward the ceiling. "But no! Nothing!"

Cal took a moment to absorb this latest left turn--and to unclench his fists.

"'You expected me to be attracted to you'?" he said finally. "Are you really that arrogant, or do you just think that anybody on one of those sites would just swoon for any guy with fur? Ugh, and I thought regular cats were self-centered! So what--I was supposed to come in, take one look, and just fall all over you or something?"

"Yes!"

"Right. And you thought that because not only are you a conceited jackass, you're also a complete moron?"

"Only a moron for believing you! 'Sneak into my camp anytime you like, stud!' Ha!"

Ears back and shoulders visibly tensed, Rocky leaned forward to put his face inches from Cal's. Even with him sitting down it was close to level with the human's and Cal had to make en effort not to draw back.

"Do you know why I'm disappointed at your favorites collection?" Rocky hissed, voice sounding strangled. "It's because it's almost entirely wolves! The last even marginally feline thing you added was weeks ago--and it was a hyena! You said you liked tigers--liked me!--but now it turns out you're just like everybody else. Just another toady for those drooling, yapping, evil bastards."

Irrationally, the accusation stung. Cal tried to shove Rocky away--but a paw clamped around his wrist and he ended up just pushing himself backward instead. He stumbled and yanked his arm out of the tiger's grasp, collecting a few claw marks for his trouble.

Then he stood there, just trying to sift words out of his incoherently swirling thoughts.

This guy sounds like a delusional conspiracy theorist stalker. This guy is an ass. So the cat hates dogs? Of course the cat hates dogs. Telling him he's psycho is probably not a good idea, what if he really explodes? Do I really want annoy the large predator? It is way too late at night to deal with this. I should go get Khola. Unless she's in on it... They were yelling in Shaanan, he's probably 'family' somehow. Hell, this entire thing smells, I should just grab my stuff and leave now. This guy keeps talking like he knows me, but I think I'd remember meeting a tiger. Named Rocky. Who knows a lot about my account on a relatively minor furry art site. And... seems to think I was coming on to him?

Cal felt his stomach clench.

Oh. Oh, no. No no no this kind of contrived coincidence crap doesn't happen outside of really cheesy anime...

Cal rubbed at his eyes and peeked over his fingers at Rocky. The tiger was just staring at the floor sullenly, anger apparently burned out.

"...Blackrock?"

Droopy ears instantly perked up, and Cal found himself fixed with a watchful stare. Rocky's expression was guarded, but his bright amber eyes hinted at renewed anticipation.

Bullseye. Dammit.

Cal sighed, dropping his hands. "BlackrockStripes. A.k.a. Auron Blackrock, scout-in-training in the Tirasha army Fourth Border Rangers Force. Nicknamed 'Rocky' by his mates. No close family. Strong and sneaky, but impulsive and falls into mudholes more often than should really be possible. Keeps a detailed journal, some of which he posts online. And once was very... hospitable... to a certain winter-chilled fox that stumbled into his camp." Cal paused and swallowed. "Who, uh, may have promised to return the favor at some point. Why the hell didn't you just introduce yourself right off?"

Rocky's whiskers twitched, a smirk creeping onto his muzzle.

"Wait." Cal thrust out a palm, stopping the tiger just as his mouth opened. "Just... don't say anything. I need a minute."

The smirk faltered slightly and Rocky softly reached out both paws to take his hand instead--maybe intending to be comforting, maybe intending to pull him in.. Cal didn't wait to find out, snatching his hand away from the closing claws and whirling around to stumble back over to the window seat, where he dropped heavily into the cushions.

Congratulations, you are now living the fanboy fantasy! Someone you met online has turned out to be an actual furry and is here to make all your dreams come true! Or something.

Cal groaned. Maybe somebody who was a serious fanboy instead of just a dabbler would have planned out exactly what to do in this situation. Cal, however, had no clue. Get out a pokeball? Hold out his palm until the tiger put his nose in it?

Instead he just stared out the window at the lights of the harbor and tried to reconcile the tiger on the bed with the much friendlier one he'd met online. Cal still rather wanted to strangle the jerk. But maybe he should give him a chance, at least?

Cal briefly considered not being total pushover. But this time was different, right? It wasn't just a handsome face and an inviting smile this time--so far it'd actually been a threatening face and a toothy snarl.

And Cal did owe Blackrock--Rocky--whatever, a good deal. Cal hadn't intended to dump everything on him after the whole Jason disaster went down, but he'd been online when Cal had logged on to gofurrific to wipe his account, and sent Cal a message asking how he was, and Cal had been stuck in a tiny town on the Canadia border feeling lonely and reckless and ended up spilling all his frustration and self-loathing out on some guy he'd only exchanged a couple dozen online comments with.

Which had worked out... surprisingly well, actually. After a series of stormy talks during the week in Podunk Cal had ended up with, if not contentment, at least less anger--and that which remained was directed at Jason rather than himself. Blackrock had made a good outlet--he'd had an eerily good sense for when to shut up, when to give support, and when to give Cal a little poke with some stupid joke or a bit of a different viewpoint. It felt like he'd been a friend for years. After Cal got home they continued just chattering on and off about whatever really--movies or games or relatives or coworkers or whatever story Blackrock was working on, a few times trying out RP-ish collaborative things--though Cal always stopped them if they seemed to be going beyond PG13.

Despite all that, Cal hadn't gotten much info about the real-world Blackrock. Either he stayed in character all the time or "Auron Blackrock" was even more of a thin shell than Cal's uncreatively-named "Carmine the Fox" was. He would voice-chat but never turned the camera on. His few posted photos just showed him in a fursuit against a generic landscape. Cal suspected he might actually be in some branch of the military--he dropped offline for "training exercises" every few weeks, usually followed by posting another Tirasha Ranger Troop story full of little realistic details of the type you couldn't make up. But after a dozen conversational redirections and blatant topic changes Cal gave up probing him for real-world info. His theory up to now had been that Blackrock belonged to some government organization he just couldn't talk about.

That organization apparently being the DARPA gene lab experimental feline supersoldiers program. In hindsight, those photos probably weren't of a fursuit.

Cal glanced over at the bed to find Rocky sitting hunched over watching him, face inscrutable and tailtip curling restlessly.

Thinking of him as Blackrock, the warm-hearted confidant, should have been comforting. Mostly it was just worrying: the breakup hadn't been the only thing Cal had told Blackrock about, thinking him safely too distant to do anything. By now he probably knew enough to wreck Cal's life more thoroughly than Jason could have ever done. And that he was here at all felt a bit like a betrayal--much better and safer when he'd been just text on the screen and voice in the earphones. Not to mention that that stare was getting kind of unnerving...

Fighting off an urge to hide, Cal twisted around to face Rocky squarely and forced himself into some semblance of calm.

"So, uh. It's good to meet you finally."

Rocky snorted.

Cal sighed. "Okay... fine. So it's actually incredibly awkward. Why are you here? How did you even find me?"

Rocky shrugged. "I just wanted to finally meet you for real. As for how... I found your laptop that time you forgot it under the couch in the lounge downstairs. It was unlocked and open to your gofurrific account, so... yeah."

Cal frowned. "Arric told me he found it. And I think I'd have noticed you around the hotel before--not a lot of the staff have, y'know, fur and tails. And by 'not a lot' I mean 'absolutely none of them'."

Rocky hesitated, suddenly nervous.

"I, uh, help out here sometimes. But I don't go out front when there are guests around, for obvious reasons. Arric was just covering for me."

"Hrmph." Cal continued giving him a suspicious look.

Rocky shifted uncomfortably, ears flicking and face making a sour expression.

"Also... I'm sorry."

"For snooping on me?"

"No." Rocky grimaced briefly. "Well, that too. But mostly for earlier. For assuming you'd automatically just pick up where we left off online. And then exploding when you didn't. I..."

Cal watched him fidget, waiting and saying nothing.

"Well, no. Also I was just mad because Sar-- because Khola caught me here and chewed me out for it. So.... sorry."

Rocky apparently did "stare disconsolately at the floor" really well, because Cal felt it yanking on his heart against his will. And maybe he had been wrong too, for leaning on Blackrock so much while not thinking at all about how he might be taking it.

Cal sighed.

"Look--it's fine, don't worry about it. I shouldn't have lost it like that either, just, what you said reminded me of Jason, and--" Cal started and cut off as Rocky's head snapped up to stare at him, a look of horror on his face.

Cal furiously waved his hands in denial. "No, no! Look, I know you're not like that." Not usually, anyway. "It's not a problem, I just took it wrong. It's fine." Rocky seemed to relax, but his expression remained wary.

Cal sighed and scrubbed his palms over his face. "Just--explain what's going on please? I had wanted to meet you too, but... I was really not expecting it like this. Or you to look like that. This is definitely way into fantasy territory here."

Rocky continued to stare for a moment. Then his ears perked up and a small smile broke out his muzzle. It was completely unlike his previous smirk, and it grew almost sunny as he leaned back on his arms and kicked his heels against the sideboard of the bed. Coincidentally, this also put his well-built torso on full display.

Cal blinked. Ahh shit, and he's actually cute when he smiles. He shook his head. Don't stare! Answers first, distractions later.

"Well. So I'm a, uh. Hmm." Rocky chuckled. "Sorry. This is just kind of awkward to actually explain out loud, y'know?"

"What, that you're an experimental feline supersoldier created by a shady government agency to fight terrorists and aliens?" Desperate to get his mind back on track, Cal spit out the first thing that entered his head.

Rocky stared for a moment, then burst out laughing. The sound was familiar, and Cal found himself unintentionally smiling along.

"Ha! No. I don't think those actually exist. Though I guess you're not far off--I am a member of the... um. Hmm." Rocky's smile drooped, turning rueful. "Sorry again. There are some things I can't actually tell you."

Of course. Cal felt his wariness return. Rocky must have noticed something in his face, because his expression turned earnest.

"Look, it's nothing bad. And anyway, you're probably more interested in why I'm here now, right?"

Cal shrugged and waved at him to go on. Rocky leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

"So. How closely did you look at the amenities list for the Akavita Magisterial Suite?"

"Not very? But it looked pretty normal to me."

"Right, it mostly is. But near the end, one of the items is 'bed warmer'." The tiger tapped his chest with a claw tip. "Tonight, that's me. The reason Sa-- Khola was angry was that I swapped with who was originally supposed to be doing it and didn't tell anyone."

Cal felt his face growing hot.

"I, uh, wait, isn't 'bed warmer' a euphemism for a prosti--"

"No."

"I mean, there's nothing wrong with that necessarily! But if this place is taking advantage of--"

" No." Rocky shot him a glare. When it was clear Cal wasn't going to open his mouth again, his face relaxed into a wry smile--though behind him, his tail went on lashing nervously.

"Look, it's not like that," the tiger continued, "Unless somebody on staff volunteers, you can't even get this room in the first place. And we don't have to, y'know, perform any special services. Just sleep on the bed with you and hope you have pleasant dreams." Rocky ran a paw over his head as his smile turned rueful. "And, heh, not scare you off. Or make you angry, or like six other things I've already done tonight. And honestly, I was mostly just hoping you'd come back earlier and we could use the time to catch up a little."

"Oh." Cal was... relieved, he supposed. And though part of him was now lobbying to just snuggle up and replay Carmine's online encounters in the flesh, a louder part was busy reciting a litany of every grisly story about internet stalkers he'd ever heard. And really--this entire thing still seemed incredibly weird.

"So--I appreciate the gesture, I guess, but what if I don't actually want company like that?"

"Aww, c'mon now." The tiger grinned at him, raising one arm up to flex his biceps as he patted it with the other paw. "So you're saying you don't¬ wanna curl up on one of these boys?" He waggled his brow salaciously and shot Cal an exaggerated wink.

Cal snorted, a grin sneaking onto his own face.

"Hardly. You know, Carmine got offered an arm bigger than his head for a pillow. I feel insulted that all you're offering is those little things. They're not even cantaloupe-sized!"

"Hey now," Rocky's expression shifted into a pout. "That's not fair, Carmine's head is a lot smaller than yours. And besides--you can't begrudge a guy a bit of online exaggeration."

"Uh huh. " Not that they really needed the exaggeration though... Cal let his eyes drift down to stare at the arms under discussion before self-consciously snapping his gaze back to the tiger's face when Rocky started talking again a moment later.

"Though, seriously," Rocky said, then paused, looking uncertain. "I'd also kinda like to see you again at some point. And if you kick me out now then I can't come back. They really don't like us coming out in the open like this--I'm only still here at all because I promised I could get you to go along with it and then keep quiet after."

"'It' being what, sleeping together?"

"Yeah. Next to each other, at least."

Cal frowned. "That's idiotic, why do they even care about that? Whoever 'they' are... Akavita? And how exactly were you going to convince me that you should stay here?"

"Well--" Rocky scratched at his cheek with a claw. "The original plan was just sex appeal. That's pretty clearly not gonna work though. So it's time for alternate methods--like guilt."

"Guilt? What would I--augh!"

Cal threw up a hand in front of his face, trying to shield himself from the sight of a stocky anthropomorphic tiger in the most incongruous attitude possible--feet crossed, broad shoulders curled inward and arms clasped bashfully between his knees, tail rising into a question mark behind him, upturned face making the saddest kitten eyes Cal had seen in a decade of the internet's sad kitten pictures. His whiskers twitched gently as his mouth shifted into a slight pout.

"Stop that!" Cal said. He felt his mind crumbling under the double assault of buff and cute. "I, um. Look, I know you're... um. I..."

When Cal could think again, Rocky was leaning back on his arms and watching him with a far-too-amused smile.

"Okay, fine," Cal said, "So you can do... that. But that doesn't mean--"

"There's also blackmail, of course."

Cal froze, a frisson of fear suddenly sliding down his neck.

"And what," he said carefully, "Would you be blackmailing me with, exactly?" His mind frantically tried to recall just what he'd told Blackrock over the last couple months but there was too much to go through.

"Well, you did send me those selfies you took at the Hello Kitty theme park."

Cal blinked, confused. "The... what?"

Rocky smirked at him. "You know, SunrioLand. You were posing with that girl in the cute red pony costume. I'm sure your friends and coworkers would love to know about that little secret trip to go see your favorite cartoon characters."

"Wait. Wait--" Cal rubbed a palm on his forehead. "Out of all the things you could use, you're trying to blackmail me with Hello Kitty?"

"Hell yeah. You think your manly image would ever recover after a blow like that? I don't think so." Rocky tapped a claw on his chin. "But y'know, I don't even have to tell your friends. I'll just give the pictures to Laara. She'll make sure you never hear the end of it." He grinned evilly at Cal.

Cal just gaped at him for a moment. 'Manly image'? I don't even... Is that his idea of... huh?

Cal snorted. Then sniggered. Then his brain gave up trying to think as he finally just cracked up, coughing out spurts of defeated, tear-streaked laughter from deep in his chest, clearing out anxious knots he'd forgotten he was even holding on to.

He was still wiping his eyes when there was a loud rapping on the door. Rocky started, glancing over with a worried expression before levering himself off the bed and moving to answer it.

Strangely relaxed, Cal just watched Rocky's tail swish behind him as he walked across the room. There was something odd about his stride--like he had one joint too many, or was walking on tiptoe all the time. But Rocky's loose cargo shorts hid the details and Cal ended up just staring blankly, giving up trying to figure it out. His earlier adrenaline spike was fading now, and waves of sleepiness were starting to lap at his consciousness.

Rocky cracked open the door and grinned at whoever was in the hallway, though from Cal's angle he couldn't see who it was at all. Cal did hear a quiet female voice speaking urgently, presumably in Shaanan, and occasionally heard Rocky responding in the same language.

Cal yawned. Watching the conversation idly, he thought that he should really stop thinking of Rocky as a tiger. He didn't have a white stomach like a real tiger did--the stripes just went all the way around. And his tail was a bit too long-haired and swishy. Really, he looked sort of like a tabby cat. A really large and intimidating tabby cat, with dubious fashion sense.

Cal yawned again, head drooping. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a flash of tan-skinned (human) arms reaching through the doorway and hanging something around Rocky's neck, but wasn't sure. A few moments later he heard the door slide shut, then the tapping of claws on the wooden floor as the tiger strode toward him.

"So!"

Cal looked up, blinking at the broad, slightly rippled expanse of stripy stomach fur two feet from his face. Shifting his gaze a bit downward, he noticed that despite Rocky's earlier comments about online art and unrealistic shorts-filling, Rocky himself was doing a rather decent job of it even in those loose--

"Hey. Up here." Cal felt a rough paw under his chin, tilting his head up to meet the tiger's smirking gaze. Reflexively he tried to yank his head back--but stopped, the impulse to pull away buried under a sudden wave of an oddly warm, detached feeling. So instead he just smiled dazedly back.

The tiger's smirk turned into a full-on Cheshire Cat grin. "Good, it's working. Original plan's back on then." The paw let go of Cal's chin and petted him lightly on the head.

"Original plan?" Head free, Cal's gaze now wandered across the wide span of Rocky's shoulders and down to his softly mounded chest. It looked alluringly thick and fluffy; Cal felt an urge to run his hands through the fur. Or maybe Rocky would let him use it for a pillow? That might be nice.

Cal's eyes caught on something hanging around Rocky's neck and he tried to focus on it--a penny on a string? A yawn and another wave of warm detachment put the thought out of his head.

Rocky's grin shifted to a soft smile as he reached out a broad paw and laid it on Cal's shoulder. Then he bent down to put his muzzle to Cal's ear, his whiskers brushing against the human's cheek.

"Hey," he murmured. "You look half dead. Let's just go to bed, okay?" He gave Cal's shoulder a light squeeze, then drew back a bit to gaze at Cal's face with a concerned expression.

Cal looked down at the paw resting on his shoulder. Impulsively he laid his hand over it, enjoying the feel of his fingers between the tiger's thicker fuzzy ones. Slowly, he stroked his hand down Rocky's arm, finding it exactly what its appearance had promised: plush fur over sturdy bone and tough sinew and firm muscle.

He turned his head back to look at Rocky, furry face only inches away. Had his deep amber eyes always had those sparkling jade flecks? Cal couldn't remember. He just gave the tiger a muzzy smile.

"Yeah... bed sounds good," he said.

Then he threw his other arm around Rocky's neck and dragged lips to muzzle.

As far as kisses went, it wasn't particularly skillful. Nor long--Cal got just a few seconds of warm and wet and fur and fang before Rocky yanked himself back and stared down at Cal with his eyes wide.

Cal giggled. Then stretched his arms high as he let out the biggest yawn yet and fell back into the cushions of the window seat, where he watched the tiger from under half-lidded eyes. A loopy grin pasted itself across his face.

"Uh." Rocky blinked a few times.

Cal saw a parade of emotions march across the feline face: astonished, smug, mischievous, worried, annoyed, resigned, and a handful he couldn't name. Rocky's tail lashed behind him furiously. But eventually he seemed to come to some sort of decision.

"Right," he said, shaking his head and reaching an arm down to help Cal up. "Come on, then."

But Cal was yawning again, and this time his eyes didn't reopen. The last thing he could remember was a pair of strong paws taking him under the arms and carefully lifting him upward.

As he lay awake on the bed in the dark drizzly middle of the night, Cal considered whether a complete freak-out would be in order.

He was is the Akavita penthouse suite. He was currently being pinned down to the bed by a large anthropomorphic tiger, who was asleep. The tiger was actually a guy he'd met online, who'd decided to surprise him by showing up in his hotel room, then thrown a tantrum, and then contrived that they sleep together. Fortunately only literally.

Cal's thoughts on these matters could be expressed in just a few words:

What. The. Hell.

He didn't seem to be missing any kidneys, at least. And since was still in a T-shirt and Rocky was still wearing those unnervingly turquoise shorts, probably nothing else at all had happened after he'd blacked out. Not like some of the stories he'd heard from friends in college about waking up next to strange guys from the internet--though none of those had involved a literal predator. Who in this case, admittedly, had seemed even more nervous than Cal at times. But what the hell was that last part? Drugs? Hypnotism? Just weariness and lingering alcohol? Never in a hundred years would Cal have acted like that normally. Even just remembering it made his face burn--though whether from anger or embarrassment was hard to tell.

Then Cal frowned, as something else pricked at his memory. Things had been weird but not totally out of control until somebody had shown up at the door and given Rocky that thing he'd strung around his neck. Then Rocky had suddenly gotten aggressive, and Cal had... gone hazy.

Cal's flicked his eyes over to the sleeping tiger next to him. It was hard to make out in the dimness, but he thought he could see a white cord cutting across the fur of his neck.

A little squirming let Cal sit up, Rocky's thick immovable arm now across his lap. Shivering in the chill air of the room, he carefully reached over to pull on the cord, rotating it around the tiger's neck. Rocky was apparently a heavy sleeper because he didn't stir at all.

The thing attached to the cord did eventually come out from under the tiger's fur. It turned out to be a little metal disc about the size of a nickel, heavily etched with irregular patterns of angles that caught oddly at the shifting light of the room. Cal thought he remembered it being copper, but in the dimness it was impossible to tell. Regardless, it didn't look like anything particularly special--no hypnotically moving parts, no pheromone dispenser, nothing. Maybe on the other side? He reached out to turn it over, but a zap of electricity made him snatch his hand back. He barely bit his lip in time to contain a yelp.

Right--it was rubbing against fur, so it picked up static electricity. Should have thought of that.

He reached out again... and got zapped again. This time he did yelp, then froze as Rocky started shifting, arching his back and pulling in on the arm pinning Cal's lap until the top of the tiger's head butted against his thigh. But he didn't open his eyes, and Cal let out a breath of relief.

Then frowned. Static electricity didn't shock you twice in a row. It was just physically impossible unless something exceedingly strange was going on. Though really--on the scale of tonight's weirdnesses that was pretty minor, and Cal didn't feel like experimenting further. The disc had disappeared under the tiger again anyway.

Cal sighed. What the hell. Really.

He looked down at the tiger. Rocky seemed much less weird and intimidating when he was sprawled out asleep like one of the cats Cal had had in elementary school. He still had a deathgrip on Cal's waist, but he seemed more... friendly. Safe. Familiar, even.

And he was warm. Cal shivered again.

Then, trying not to think too hard about what he was doing, Cal slowly squirmed back down under the covers until Rocky's head was bumping against his side. Then hung his arm down over the tiger's broad back.

It was pretty comfortable.

And weirdly nostalgic: Rocky even smelled kind of like a housecat. Though his scent seemed thicker somehow--more earthy. And slightly tinged with soap.

Cal scritched absently at the tiger's fur, already half-asleep just from the warmth. The rain had stopped but the wavering light still played over the ceiling from whatever puddle it was reflecting off. For a moment it seemed the rippling was following his heartbeat--but when he tried to concentrate on it, the illusion disappeared.

His eyes closed. And wandering through half-forgotten memories of family and pets and friends and boyfriends, he fell into dreaming.

On the carving above the bed, the shifting waves of fire-orange light were joined by others of deep indigo, each chasing after the other.